The question on the minds of progressive cruise line market leaders is how to securely process increasingly larger numbers of passengers while adding more customer ease into the cruise experience. Many in the cruise line industry are considering the use of biometrics technology.

How a Single Unified Biometric Key Creates Seamless Experiences

Passwords, loyalty cards and other forms of ID are used in every encounter, from shopping at the grocery store to listening to your favorite playlist to boarding a cruise ship. Enterprise leaders are recognizing the amount of information consumers have to carry, either physically or mentally, in order to access personalized experiences. Allen Ganz, Director of Advanced Recognition Solutions at NEC America offers a different take: “Your face is a unified key.”

Specific to the cruise line industry, early adopters have found that a unified biometric key can be used for:

Biometric Passenger Manifest

Cruise Terminal Queue Management

Effortless Check-In and Bag Check

Frictionless Expedited Embarkation and Debarkation

Intelligent Customized Displays

Seamless Payment

Access Control

Data and Video Analytics

Command and Control

Cruise Terminal Queues and Check In

Embarkation day can be hectic for the traveler who is ready to get away from it all. The lines to board the ship can be excruciatingly long unless the traveling couple or family has purchased priority embarkation through the cruise line loyalty program. However, this process does not need to be time consuming. With the use of a unified biometric key, the queue to board the ship–even for those travelers who are not VIPs, can be more efficient.

Since the Customs check-in typically slows the process of boarding the ship, travelers can speed this up by self-enrolling in the ship’s system using facial recognition; they simply take a quick selfie using their smartphone, and opt in. Now, with a simple scan of their face, they have created a unique and unified biometric key to also use aboard the ship. Rapid access authentication quickly matches the traveler to the ship’s guest list, enabling the guests to come aboard faster. Onboard, baggage can also be matched to the traveler’s profile using only their face, so they can quickly access their luggage upon arrival or departure.

VIP Treatment

Once passengers have enrolled themselves and created their own unified biometric key, they can now use their face to unlock personalized VIP experiences tailored to their interests and manifest. Using intelligent customized displays, guests will be able to walk up and see their personalized itinerary and other entertainment options. Facial recognition technology can also open guest room doors, and purchase items on the ship through facial payment, creating a simple and frictionless experience. With a system that automatically matches each guest to their individual preferences, all travelers feel welcomed and recognized on a personal level.

Implementing facial recognition can also benefit cruise lines by prompting their staff to enthusiastically welcome loyalty guests and to personalize birthday, anniversary and other special occasion greetings.

Disney and Carnival ships are currently using biometrics to sell their passenger’s vacation photos taken during the cruise. Instead of presenting guests with a card or having, them review the photos on a wall, the system sorts through the photos by matching them to their face, and presents them on a personalized display or through a mobile app.

Frictionless Embarkation and Debarkation

Cruise ships have 2,000 to 4,000 passengers and over 1,000 employees on board, which means embarkation and debarkation at ports may take hours to complete. With the use of an individual’s unified biometric key, passengers and employees are recognized for that particular cruise, which reduces passenger-processing by 40% or more, adding efficiency to the port embarkation and debarkation experience.

Improving Safety and Security

Because a unified biometric key is unique to each individual, it can be used to improve the safety and security for everyone on board, ensuring only those persons who should be on the ship are on the ship. Facial recognition can also be used for access control, to allow cruise staff to secure employee-only areas with a scan of their face. Cruise line security can track guests, color-code traveling families, and easily create different settings for particular travelers or families.

NEC: The Leading Facial Recognition Provider

Early adopters in the cruise line industry have already begun using facial recognition to create a positive, effortless experience for their guests. NEC offers the most advanced identification matching technology today. For ten consecutive years, NEC’s facial recognition technology has been awarded first place from the U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). Some of the standards met during the testing included:

Recognizing one individual at a time, as they walked through a crowded area without stopping

Detecting suspicious individuals at an indoor stadium

Accuracy and speed of matching to photos already in a database

NEC’s NeoFace® Express uses facial recognition to transform the travel experience–or any hospitality experience that involves large groups of people. The system interfaces with on-board video systems for easy integration. Adding facial recognition and other biometric technology allows cruise lines to offer a first-class journey with security, frictionless access, and to give passengers a personalized experience using a simple, unified biometric key.

Ready to learn more? Fill out the form below for a simple consultation with one of our biometric subject matter experts or visit us online to for more information on our biometric solutions.

Learn more about NEC’s Advanced Recognition Solutions

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Across the nation, Law Enforcement Organizations (LEOs) are inundated every day with photographic and video evidence in their Criminal Investigation Divisions (CID). Numerous agencies have shared with me that in more than 30% of their CID cases the ONLY evidence they have is a photo or video of an unknown suspect, received from a variety of sources, including surveillance cameras, RING doorbells, and smartphones. Typically, law enforcement resorts to sharing these images via social media, in hopes that someone will recognize the individual. Hoping for a random identification is not the most solid investigation strategy, but there is now a way those same images can become viable leads for Investigators to pursue, to catch the offenders and get them off the streets.

NEC’s NeoFace® WideNet is designed to assist law enforcement agencies by turning their mugshot repositories interfaced with our NIST award winning Facial Recognition solution into Facial Recognition as a Service for Law Enforcement. For the first time, multiple agencies will be able to share their mugshots with each other, AND utilize NEC’s powerful NeoFace Facial Recognition–the industry’s fastest and most accurate face matching algorithm. A key benefit to the criminal case investigation is the advantage of quick processing of facial evidence coupled with its ability to rapidly generate a list of persons of interest. Speedy identification means NEC’s NeoFace WideNet-hosted service saves valuable time in the investigations of cases containing facial video evidence, thus reducing the investigator’s caseload.

Designed to be highly scalable as well as affordable, NeoFace WideNet is for small, medium, and the largest of law enforcement agencies. Because this service changes the model for this purchase from CAPEX to OPEX, this lowers acquisition costs and is enabling agencies of all sizes to utilize the technology.
NeoFace WideNet customers see an immediate return on investment with the reduction of investigation time and reduced investigator workloads. But most importantly, this crime fighting solution helps turn those previously unusable images into hard evidence to solve crimes and help close cases.

Just as AFIS revolutionized fingerprint evidence over 30 years ago, NeoFace WideNet is poised to positively impact law enforcement by effectively doing the same thing with photo and video evidence.
If your organization is interested in solving more crimes and arming your investigators with the tools to be more efficient, check this out.

Free Case StudyIrving Police Department (IPD)

Learn how City of Irving Police department worked with NEC to increase success rates in suspect identification using facial recognition.

The need for greater security in crowded, public places is changing the way businesses are engaging with customers. That’s true whether it’s an airport, stadium, cruise line or a border security check. At these, and many other high-traffic sites, the goals are the same – quickly and accurately verify the customer’s identity and provide the necessary service.

As with many of NEC’s solutions, NeoFace® Express has patented technology that allows for the capture of the best facial image for processing while providing these additional unique features and values:

Efficiency – measuring the time spent interacting with the station

Satisfaction – measuring how satisfied the user is after use of the station

Acquisition Rate – measuring the success of image acquisition; and

Accuracy – measuring the true identification rates

NeoFace Express is a key component of NEC’s single, unified biometrics key solution that provides a secure, frictionless and personalized customer experience. With a simple scan of the face, a unified key is created that allows consumers to enjoy fast, easy access to areas such as; airport lounges, theme park attractions and sporting events, while business and government agencies benefit by improving operating efficiencies and heightened security.

Traveling soon? Going to a game? Visiting a theme park? Look for the NEC’s NeoFace Express soon at these and more sites near you.
For additional information and to stay up on the latest, follow us on Twitter and check out our NEC Advanced Recognition Systems page.

At NRF17, we debuted our new facial payment solution, which allows registered shoppers to pay for their products with their face. No cash, checks or cards are necessary, you just use your good looks to save time and money.

You might have heard about the Amazon Go store prototype in Seattle, in which customers simply walk in, select their products, and walk out. With NEC’s NeoFace® facial recognition technology, which by-the-way has one of the world’s highest level of authentication accuracy, you can give your customers a similar experience.

How does it work?

Our technology matches pre-registered facial images against images taken and stored in the NeoFace® database by the POS (point of sale). All a customer needs to do is opt-in to use the solution by submitting their photo and entering a PIN to keep their account secure. The PIN is entered at time of payment to confirm the person’s identity and account information.

Pretty cool! Watch our NRF video to see how it can work with you existing POS and how it can be deployed in your store.

Has it been tested?

Right now, NEC is testing the solution in Japan in cooperation with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). In the trials, NEC, SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Card are testing the recognition performance, employee receptivity to biometric authentication, and functionality of the service. During the trial the goal is to gain the experience and know-how to provide a safe, secure, convenient cashless (and card-less) payment service utilizing facial recognition technology at other branches in the future.

We are also testing this solution in small shops in our headquarters building in Japan. Our trials are measuring authentication performance and accuracy, specifically when dealing with multiple conditions inside stores, such as, the types of cameras in use, camera positioning, installation, lighting and security.

Where can I learn more?

Retail solutions from NEC aim to help you “Know Your Customer” better. We work closely with our customers to develop a deep understanding of business needs to provide the best retail solutions possible and our facial payment product is just one of the innovative ways we can help retailers get things moving better — and faster — right in your own stores.

Check out NEC’s full retail suite by visiting www.necam.com/smartretail or let us know if you want more information by filling out the form below.

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